ATHENS — Georgia coach Mark Fox has been impressed with his team’s effort on defense this season.

When discussing the Bulldogs’ turnover-prone offense, however, Fox said next week’s trip to No. 13 Florida likely won’t be conducive to scoring.

“We just did some things that make you scratch your head,” Fox said, “but that’s the product of having young guys, and we just have to grow up in that area.”

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Nemanja Djurisic each scored 17 points and Georgia won its fourth straight game with a 52-41 victory over George Washington on Friday night.

John Florveus pulled down 10 rebounds to help the Bulldogs (6-7) overcome a season-high 25 turnovers.

The miscues were embarrassing, but Caldwell-Pope believes they likewise represent a chance for Georgia to learn from its flaws.

“It was just real sped up,” Caldwell-Pope said. “Bad passes, making bad decisions with the ball and just turning it over. We’ve just got to come back to practice and start to limit our turnovers because it will kill us in league play.”

Georgia is off until next week’s game at Florida as the Bulldogs begin their Southeastern Conference schedule.

Kevin Larsen scored 14 points to lead George Washington (6-7). The Colonials went 0-for-12 on 3-point attempts, missing all but two of them in the second half.

George Washington shot a season-worst 24.6 percent from the field.

“They did a good job of taking away our inside game, and that threw off our rhythm,” Colonials coach Mike Lonergan said. “We went through a huge scoring drought and just weren’t able to put together enough baskets to get back in the game.”

The Bulldogs were just 4-for-11 on free-throw attempts before Caldwell-Pope and Djurisic combined to hit Georgia’s last six.

Caldwell-Pope has scored Georgia’s team high in all but one game this season.

Forward Brandon Morris had a turnover on Georgia’s first possession, setting a trend in which the Bulldogs committed 11 miscues in the first 14 minutes.

“I thought in the first half we looked like a team that needed school to start,” Fox said. “We just had to grind through because we’ve been working hard. When it really mattered, though, I thought we got our energy back and our spirit back and we beat a good team.”

Caldwell-Pope’s 3 at the 3:49 mark ended an 11-2 run by the Colonials and got Georgia within one of the lead.

Georgia, which had won three straight over Mercer, Southern Cal and Florida A&M, began the game ranked No. 297 in offense, but scored nearly nine points under its average.

The Colonials, who were outscored 34-20 in the second half, began the game ranked No. 207 with a 62.5 scoring average.

“We played with a lot of intensity, but our offense isn’t clicking right now, and it’s hard to win when you score 41 points,” Larsen said. “We did, however, play decent defense and hit our free throws. We can just hope to keep getting better and improve every game.”

Senior Vincent Williams replaced freshman Charles Mann at point guard in the starting lineup for Georgia. Mann had started the last three games, but Fox decided to keep tinkering with his lineup.

Friday marked the eighth different lineup Georgia has used this season.

“Until they get older and more mature and show up every day in every drill, they’re going to be up and down a little bit,” Fox said. “Our freshmen maybe hit the wall a little bit after the break. They didn’t have great weeks of practice and so we had to change the lineup a little bit.”

Djurisic returned to the starting lineup for the first time since Georgia dropped to 2-6 on Dec. 4 with an eight-point loss at Georgia Tech.

The Colonials will host St. Bonaventure in their first Atlantic 10 game Wednesday.

Georgia and George Washington were playing for the first time. Their only common opponent this season, Youngstown State, beat both teams in November.

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